Wednesday, November 5, 2014
Midterm elections - 2014! Open debate!
Since our class is ALL about understanding our government and the science behind what makes us work, why not apply that knowledge to yesterday's elections. Find ONE article from today's newspapers that discuss the long term impact of the latest election results. Share where the article came from, discuss the main idea article, as well as any bias you might detect. Also, please evaluate the election results overall and discuss what implications these results will have for our President. Feel free to respond to your classmates! :)
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The article that i read was "Why the Senate GOP takeover might actually help Hillary Clinton" from the Washington Post , in it basically states how having republicans taking over the Senate and the House of Reps is good for Hillary since in these two next years they may aggravate the public with their laws and make a democrats like Hillary more appealing to the public and that would get people to vote for her (or other democratic candidates) in the presidential election of 2016. This article both includes a bias idea on how it would be good for Democrats and how it might be bad since if the senate decide to pass a law ,President Obama can just veto that and then the media might ask her a question on what she would have done if she was president and she will probably agree with Obama's opinion which puts her in a bad spot . I believe that the senate now is going to try to go against Obama since they believe ,like many voters, that he hasn't been a very productive president .Hillary Clinton will be put in there since she worked alongside Obama as secretary of state, so they will try and make voters believe that democrats are “bad” .Overall the election results show how people don’t think Obama has done anything other than his healthcare act, but then again doesn’t every president , at some point in their term, get accused of not doing anything at least until they attempt to do it ? , Obama may be thinking in trying to work together with the Senate/ House of Reps, now that they have the houses so that he can get the trust of the people back and also get in good terms. But then again that may be hard since Democrat and Republicans have different views on various ideas and one that i believe is big is Taxes and here in the U.S that is a big thing among citizens. So i believe that President obama and the candidates of 2016 , like Hillary Clinton, will have a tough time trying to get the public attention with this take over that the republicans are having in both houses.
ReplyDeleteThe article I read from the New York Times was called "Obama Vows to Cooperate, Within Limits". The Republican party has gained power in both houses, Congress and Senate, and Obama realizes that he will need to find common ground with the Republican party if he wants to move America further. However, with the new Republican majority in both Houses, it will be difficult for President Obama to use his executive action on immigration and also expand Medicaid for the nation. Although the results of the election voted in favor for the Republican party, Obama took note that he hears "America"; Republicans see this win as an opportunity to change America, and gain hope from the US population. According to Mr. McConnell, he vows to make the Senate to "work again" while making progress that was failed under the Obama administration. The final two years of Obama's presidency will be rocky, that is for sure. Obama and the Republican majority Houses hold two different ideologies that will fuel tensions in Capitol Hill. In my opinion, the issue of immigration will be interesting to see play out between President Obama and Republicans. Since Obama constantly put off any legislation regarding on immigration reforms, the likelihood of passing any laws will be slim, but not impossible. As the New York Times reports, Obama will try his best to cooperate with the new Senate and Congress but time will tell how well this new government will impact not only the lives of the people, but Obama's final two years as president.
ReplyDeleteApology in advance: I'm not sure why my Google account keeps using this screen name. Oops...
ReplyDelete~
The chosen article I had read was one focused on the question "will this election have a lasting impact on stocks/the economy?" Its source is Barron's.
The article notes that they (those who worked with the Barron's company) predicted the Republicans winning the election. What they did not account for was them capturing the senate. The article also highlights recent news that led to the declining popularity of President Obama. (Those namely being the Ebola scare and separate geopolitical threats).
The election results will allow the Republican party to pass legislations onward to the President with more ease. As of now, the Republicans have their foot in the doorway. The upcoming election event of 2016 tells them that its time to prove themselves to the People of America. They will need to show that they can properly handle the issues the country is facing. An issue they will focus on is the Keystone Pipeline agenda. (The Keystone Pipeline System is an oil pipeline system in Canada and the United States. It runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin in Alberta, Canada, to refineries in the United States in Steele City, Nebraska; Wood River and Patoka, Illinois; and the Gulf Coast of Texas). From Wikipedia. It is unclear whether or not President Obama will authorize the construction of this infrastructure. Health care will also be another strong focus for the Republican Party.
Moving onto the side of economics...
If there is one thing investors love (besides making money for profits), it's clarity. It keeps them ahead of the game; ahead of their competition. This election will bring change. (As for drastic, I am unsure). Economic change will undoubtedly occur. With the Republican party winning the election now, investors are already looking in on this. It changes the game. Investors and stock holders both know that changes will be made under the success of the Republicans, due to the recent light of events. History shows that when political parties switch over one another, investments increase. With the Republican party winning, we can expect an increase in investments and stock-holders. To quote the article itself: "Since 1950, the S&P 500 Index experienced positive returns in every six-month period following the last 16 midterm elections, with an average gain of 16%.3 One reason for this trend may be that elections remove uncertainty, and if there is one thing investors love, it is clarity."
The article that I read was called " National tide, bear vote may have aided Poliquin in Maine's 2nd District" from Central Maine. Basically, the main idea of this article is that Republicans are obviously gaining more power compared to Democrats. Poliquin will now join the House of Representatives. Overall, Republicans gained at least 14 House seats. Poliquin's election is a historic one because the 2nd District will move to the Republican column for the first time since 1995. Bruce Poliquin, won with 47% of the votes. He stated that his party's time came because “folks that are different, folks with business experience.” Poliquin also says that he is willing to work with anyone including the opposing party (Democrats) and independents in order to fix problems. The bear-hunting referendum was rejected by 53% of the population in Maine. Poliquin is against abortion which is not surprising since he is a Republican. Our president will continue to struggle with the two different parties and now even more since the Republicans have much influence in the House of Reps.
ReplyDeleteThe article I read was written by Julie Hirschfeld and Peter Baker, “After Election, President Vows to Work With, and Without, Congress.” This article is about how the Republican party dominates both the House and Senate and what President Obama will do after this election. He stated that he is eager to find common ground with Republicans during the final two years of his presidency. He wish to accomplish as much as he can in his remaining time in office. However that would be difficult on his part. This Midterm Election clearly reflects what the voters want. The American voters want to see action now. In the end President Obama sum up the ultimate lesson from this election, for both parties should do more to work together. I agree with this because everything can not be done by ignoring each other’s idea in making this government work. While reading the article, I felt it was bias towards the Democratic party due to the supporting words and phase that was use to describe President Obama. “Unlike his predecessor, George W. Bush, who fired Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld the day after the 2006 midterm elections, Mr. Obama made no personnel changes, and aides said they did not expect any.” In this election I was somewhat disappointed in how low the percentage for the Environmental parties (Green party ) however I was not shocked. I thought there would have more voters voting for the Green Party due to all the promotion and campaign they do to send out the message about the environment. If I was able to vote, I would have voted the Green party simply for the positive changes to environment, that they had promised to make.
ReplyDeleteIn my article, "After the Mid-term Elections: If the Republicans Win the Senate", the author argues that there are pros and cons of having a majority in both the House of reps and Senate.The author provides the argument that pessimists would say that each party is two polarized to agree on anything and progress these next two years will be stagnate. Many conservative republicans will see this as a way to block any referendum Obama has in store and Obama in turn will veto most bills passed through Congress. Many democrats feel that in order for Obama to get anything done he will have to "use executive orders and federal regulations to pursue progressive goals such as curbing greenhouse gas emissions, shielding illegal immigrants from deportation, and closing Guantanamo Bay to terrorists." Some people speculate that this change of majority in the Senate will force the Republicans to be more responsible; instead of attacking the President from the sidelines, their own reputation is at risk. If there is no progress being made, it will fall on the Republicans also, so both sides are going to have to come to terms and perhaps develop more moderate bills to be passed if anything progressive is to get done in the next two years.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21625788-two-scenarios-next-two-years-if-republicans-win-senate
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/05/us/politics/midterm-elections.html?_r=0
ReplyDeleteThe article i read was from the NY Times. To sum up the article, it pretty much explains how President Obama's last two years will be a huge struggle for him. The fact that the Republicans won a majority of the seats in Senate since 2006 it will be extremely hard for him to pass laws when Senate will mostly be against the President. Like some discussed in class, Obama will need to do what Clinton did in his term. If he's going to want something passed in his favor, he will need to pass something that will benefit many republicans. In conclusion, Obama has a long two years ahead of him that will have a lot of struggles, but let'see how he gets through it.
The article I read wasn't from any newspaper but I thought it was really interesting. It talks about the impact that the midterm elections will have on the space program and NASA. It's called "The Consequences of the 2014 Midterm Elections on NASA"(http://www.planetary.org/blogs/casey-dreier/2014/1105-the-2014-elections-and-nasa.html)
ReplyDeleteThe article explains how some space programs, previously supported by democrats, will most likely be shut down and that NASA will suffer a lot of budget cuts.NASA will also see funding caps. However, the entire space program will not necessarily see huge changes aside from the cutting down on programs and the budget. I feel like there might be some bias in the article. I think the author leans more on the democratic side.
As for the results of the election, the republicans seem to have won the election like we saw in class. President Obama is going to have a hard time trying to get anything done now, especially since he's getting blamed for everything.